Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-10-29
DAILY HERALD.
u.s,xoo., ANA Its Future.

The operations of w. Cutten, who
has gone East as representative OF
the redwood lumber companies oil
Humboldt, Mendocino and Siskiyou
are. OF course, of interest; but 1t may
be questioned whether his object and
the object of his constituents are we'll
considered. He proposes to place ON
tha Eastern market redwood in large |
quantities and at low prices, so as to
tempt people to build houses OF it in
stead Of pine or hardwood. We do
not believe California can spare red
wood for any such purpose as that.
Il must be rendered that the area
occuyied by The Sequoia sempervir-
ems, or true redwood, is limited. 1t
is found in groves Of moderate extent
in Santa Clara and San Mateo coun-
ties; it is fairly abundant in Mendo-
cino and Humboldt counties; there
arc groves OF it in Siskiyou and Trim
ity, and it is found to some extent
further north. But for commercial
purposes, it may be said to be found
exclusively i'm Mendocino and Hum
boldt. The redwood that goes to
market from forests outside of these
coanties cuts no figure in the lumber
market. Now, large as these
counties look on the map, their five
million acres are very small tract
indeed, if they are expected to furnish
much Of the building timber for the
Eastern States. 1t would not take
long to exhaust them, and, as is
known, though young shoots do spring
from the stumps of redwood trees
which have been cut down, their
growth is SO slow that the tree may be
practically said not to reproduce it
self.
California cannot certainly afford
to supply the Eastern States with
redwood to build houses at anything
like present prices. In a very little
while our whole output will be needed
for finishing work, decorations, furnl-
ture and other superior uses. Red
wood is destined to take the place to
considerable extent of mahogany,
black walnut, bird's-eye maple,
cherry and oak. 1t is as hand
some az any of these, takes a
fine polish, is durable and shrinks
less than any other soft wood. Ever
ance rosewood went out of use in
consequence Of the extinction OF the
supply, house decorators have been
at their wits end to find a substitute,
and they have been driven to fall
back on mahogany, which is growing
scarcer year by year in consequence
Of the increased demand. Black wal
nut can never be made "dressy; :"
the cherry and the bird's-eye
maple do not yield large
blanks; oak looks baronial,
but is sombre for any room except Il
dining-room. Redwood is suited for
any kind of decoration. 1t makes fine
furniture, and for mantels and wains-
cots it is equal to the handsomest
woods of Australia, which are so
scarce and so dear. 1t is mere ques-
ton Of time when the East and Europe
will realize its possibilities, and then
it will sell not by the thousand feet,
like pine. but by the ton, like mo-
hogany.
In the old houses Of the merchant
princes of New York, built in the last
century, you will still see dining
rooms OF solid mahogany. The table
is solid slab of mahogany, with
massive mahogany legs; the chairs
are mahogany; the sideboard is the
sane, and even the massive folding
doors, which connect with the
library, and the great door from
the staircase, are of solid
mahogany, worth almost its
weight in silver. There was no
veneer in those days. Furniture deal
ers are appalled, when they witness
n,cb extravaganza. But the furni-
ture-makfr Of the future, when he
comes here to pick up few tons OF
redwood to complete the decorations
Of tho ,drawing-room OF some Eastern
palace, Will be far more amazed when
he terceiyes that there was time
here when we built our houses and
stables of redwood, and even paved our
sidewalks with the precious wood
[California Architect.